On-air radio mixer and co-host of The Beat 94.5 fm’s “10 O’Clock HOT MIX” and “STRAIGHT GOODS” Mix Shows. Party-rocking Club DJ. Industry tastemaker. Respected music consultant. Proven promoter. Popular mixtape DJ. Indispensable Juno Awards Committee Member. And the list goes on and on. When you talk to Jay Wallace, a.k.a. Jay Swing, it’s clear he’s a man of great versatility. Best known as one of Canada’s top mix DJs, Jay truly is a musical chef– armed with an impressive knowledge of music and the ability to skillfully select and blend music. But this music lover and owner of over 20,000 records really has one aim, to expose good music to anyone who wants to hear it. “My whole goal hasn’t been a money-driven thing,” he admits. “It’s been to enjoy what I’m doing and be able to live off it.”
Born in Vancouver, B.C., Jay quickly discovered that his idols weren’t typical of most kids his age. Looking up to acclaimed DJs like Jam Master Jay, Jazzy Jeff and Cash Money led him to the inevitable – the purchase of turntables and mixer, which his Dad co-signed for. Then one day, Jay learnt from an article that both Busta Rhymes and Public Enemy’s Chuck D broke into the industry via college radio. With that tip in mind, in the fall of 1993 he headed to the University of B.C.’s radio station CiTR, and soon after was rewarded with a two-hour time slot. Jay hit the airwaves in 1994 with partners Flipout and Checkmate, giving Vancouver its weekly dose of hip-hop with “The Show.” Five years later, the trio decided they wanted to reach even more listeners and headed to the stronger signal of Vancouver’s world beat station, 96.1 fm. Their extremely popular show, “The Worldwide Ride,” became a midnight staple on Saturday and Monday nights.
The next stop was as ironic as it gets. “When I was a kid I called up to request Run DMC and Aerosmith’s ‘Walk This Way’ on CFOX, which had been Vancouver’s rock station forever,” Jay recounts. “But the guy told me: ‘We will never play that rap crap.’ So years later, it was the craziest thing when we got the call to move our hip-hop show onto CFOX. That gave me a pretty good sense of satisfaction.” Not only was “The Worldwide Ride” a bold move within CFOX, but Jay had pioneered it into the city’s first commercial Hip-Hop Mix Show.
So when Vancouver’s first commercial urban radio station, The Beat 94.5 fm, launched in 2002, Jay was an obvious choice to join the team. As an on-air host and mixer, he has mixed on the Traffic Jam and Old School Lunch slots, but now holds down the radio waves Monday to Saturday on the "10 O'Clock Hot Mix" and Friday's at midnite on "Straight Goods" - a magazine style show dedicated to Hip-Hop culture. In regards to his radio career, Jay says: “I’m happy because I’m still able to do radio how we first envisioned it with Straight Goods, plus it's with The Beat which is the best case scenario.”
Whether it’s rocking house parties, ram-packed clubs, or opening for acts like Parliament, Ludacris, Ciara, Lil Jon, De La Soul, The Roots, Method Man and Redman, Jay is known as one of the city’s most versatile DJs. He can cater to a large variety of crowds and keep everyone moving, from the die-hard music geek to the enthusiastic partygoer. He takes great pride in breaking new artists and supporting the cream of Canada’s crop in the clubs and on the radio. “It’s defiantly a high when you start seeing dance floors react to a song that you know you were responsible for them hearing.” he says.
It’s this infamous ear for great music as well as his entrepreneurial spirit, professionalism and laid-back demeanor that has led to so many of Jay’s other experiences. He penned an article on the Vancouver hip-hop scene for the “Hip-Hop bible” The Source, worked urban marketing and street promotions for labels such as Tommy Boy, BMG, Virgin, Bad Boy, Figure IV and Battle Axe and has been invited onto the esteemed Juno Awards Rap Committee for 9 years straight. Most recently, Jay won the 2006 Stylus DJ Award for Vancouver DJ of the Year and the 2007 Stylus Award for Mix Show of the Year.